The Gilas Pilipinas nationwide crew will go full throttle in its few remaining practices as they flip all their consideration to Dominican Republic, their first project on the 2023 FIBA World Cup right here.
The Filipinos will tackle the Dominicans, ranked No. 23 on the planet, on the opening day on August 25 on the Philippine Arena.
And head coach Chot Reyes is hopeful that the work they put in these previous weeks that they spent on coaching camps and tuneup video games will mirrored of their World Cup opener slated three days from now.
“We’re now going to condense everything that we’ve learned in those last two months and in all the two tuneup games that we’ve played in the next three days of practice,” Reyes mentioned in an interview posted by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) on Tuesday.
“Combination of video and court work to make sure that we’d be ready to be at our highest form for August 25.”
Gilas began convening as early as April in preparation for the thirty second SEA Games in Cambodia in May. As a part of the buildup, they entered a closed-door coaching camp in Laguna earlier than they flew to Phnom Penh, the place they efficiently reclaimed the gold medal after trouncing host Cambodia within the finals.
They took a brief break earlier than convening once more in June, the place the nationals left for Europe to arrange camp. They figured in a sequence of tuneup video games there in opposition to Estonia, Finland, and Ukraine with Justin Brownlee main the pack because the naturalized reinforcement.
Gilas returned house earlier than once more flying to China to hitch the 2023 Heyuan WUS International Basketball Tournament, the place they ended up with a 3-1 win-loss card after profitable twice in opposition to Iran and as soon as in opposition to Senegal.
Both camps had been missed by naturalized Jordan Clarkson and massive man Kai Sotto, however the two key items lastly joined Gilas Pilipinas after they took on three different World Cup-bound nations in friendlies over the weekend.
They ripped Ivory Coast earlier than shedding two video games in a row in opposition to Montenegro and Mexico.
“Well, obviously we would’ve wanted to win this last game in particular. But [there are a] lot of positives,” Reyes added.
“We saw, finally…we were able to get Jordan, Kai, and Scottie (Thompson) play with the rest of the guys and I think that’s the most important thing sa pagpasok sa World Cup—that we’re not going in cold.”
“Like I said, that’s what we have right now—the best we can do. So these three days are going to be very, very important.”
Dominican Republic is led by NBA star Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Aside from Towns, additionally tipped to energy the Dominicans are Victor Liz, Lester Quiñones, and Eloy Vargas as they appear to enhance their sixteenth place end from the earlier version of the World Cup.
In 2019, they racked up two wins in opposition to Jordan and Germany however misplaced to France. Still, they entered the second spherical the place they misplaced each video games to Australia and Lithuania to bow out of competition.
Gilas Pilipinas and Dominican Republic are bunched in Group A alongside Italy and Angola.
—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
